The futures were modestly lower, after a brutal start to the trading week in which all the major indexes closed down big. The Nasdaq was down a huge 2.54%. Many on Wall Street are pointing to Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell’s speech Friday at the Jackson Hole symposium as a potential huge catalyst for stocks and the market as a whole. Again, the “Fed pivot” is the talking point, and many feel it is highly unlikely there will be much of a change, especially after St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said last Thursday he is leaning toward supporting a 0.75 percentage point rate hike at the Fed’s September meeting.

Yields were once again higher across the board, with the 10-year back over the 3% level for the first time since June, as bond traders have started to also factor in the increase to $90.0 billion from $47.5 billion in the quantitative tightening that will take place next month as the Federal Reserve continues to offload some of the trillions of bonds bought over the past few years.

Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude both closed flat Monday, after being down close to 3% early in the session. Natural gas continued its parabolic move higher, closing up almost 5% at $9.79, which is a 14-year high. Gold and Bitcoin both finished the day lower, with latter down almost 2%.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week with a goal of finding fresh ideas for investors and traders alike. Some of these daily analyst calls cover stocks to buy. Other calls cover stocks to sell or avoid. Remember that no single analyst call should ever be used as a basis to buy or sell a stock. Consensus analyst target data is from Refinitiv.

These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen on Tuesday, August 23, 2022.

Blueprint Medicines Corp. (NASDAQ: BPMC): Jefferies raised its $78 target on the Buy-rated shares to $84. The consensus target is $88.63. The stock closed Monday at $71.50, which was up close to 3% for the day.

Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA): Goldman Sachs reiterated a Buy rating on the aerospace and defense giant and has a $281 target price. The consensus target is near $211, and the stock closed on Monday at $158.98.

Boston Scientific Corp. (NYSE: BSX): Stifel reiterated a Buy rating with a $50 target. The consensus target for the medical devices giant is $38.64. The last trade Monday was reported at $41.26 per share.

Brinker International Inc. (NYSE: EAT): Zacks selected this restaurant operator as its Bear of the Day, citing consumer spending worries ahead of the fourth-quarter report. The stock has traded as high as $55.53 in the past year but closed most recently at $ 29.71. That is down 28% or so in the past six months.
ChargePoint Holdings Inc. (NYSE: CHPT): BofA Securities reiterated a Neutral rating but raised the $14 target price to $15.50. The consensus target is $23.58. The stock closed over 6% lower on Monday at $14.12.

Deere & Co. (NYSE: DE): Baird reiterated an Outperform rating with a $406 price objective. The consensus target is $384.23. Monday’s closing share price was $369.64.

Elevance Health Inc. (NYSE: ELV): SVB Leerink’s upgrade to Outperform from Market Perform included a big price target hike to $580 from $490. The consensus target is $543.27. The stock closed on Monday at $507.00.

Foot Locker Inc. (NYSE: FL): Morgan Stanley raised its Underweight rating to Equal Weight. The firm also lifted the $24 target price to $36, above the $30.32 consensus target. The shares closed down 4% to $36.86 on Monday. Last week, the company announced that Ulta Beauty CEO Mary Dillon is taking over as its new chief executive.

Gartner Inc. (NYSE: IT): This IT consulting and research firm is the Zacks Bull of the Day stock. The analyst makes the case that a beat-and-raise quarter signals that the tech super cycle is alive and well. Shares last closed at $303.57 apiece, and the consensus price target represents about 8% upside.

Horizon Therapeutics PLC (NASDAQ: HZNP): Oppenheimer reiterated an Outperform rating and has a $91 target price. The consensus target is up at $105.89. The stock closed on Monday at $59.73.

IAC Inc. (NYSE: IAC): Jefferies reiterated a Buy rating with a $92 price target, citing the positive share buyback program. The consensus target is higher at $118.33. The shares closed almost 6% lower on Monday at $65.56.

Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings (NYSE: LH): Morgan Stanley resumed coverage with an Overweight rating and a $300 target price. The consensus target is $303.69. The stock ended Monday’s session trading at $243.49.

Nu Holdings Inc. (NYSE: NU): Goldman Sachs maintained a Buy rating with an $11 target price. The posted consensus target is $7.58. That last trade for Monday was at $4.53 a share.
Ross Stores Inc. (NASDAQ: ROST): Goldman Sachs reiterated a Buy rating on shares of the popular discount retailer. The firm’s $104 price objective compares with the $96.52 consensus target and Monday’s close at $88.11, which was down 3% for the day.

Saia Inc. (NASDAQ: SAIA): Evercore ISI cut its Outperform rating to In Line with a $243 target. The consensus target is $249. The stock closed at $222.97 on Monday.

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE: CRM): Jefferies maintained a Buy rating and has a $250 price target. The consensus target is $242.60. Monday’s close at $176.98 was down just shy of 4% on the day.

Schneider National Inc. (NASDAQ: SNDR): Evercore ISI’s upgrade was from In Line to Outperform with a $28 target. The consensus target is $28.29. The stock closed on Monday at $24.62.

United Parcel Service Inc. (NYSE: UPS): Goldman Sachs analysts reiterated a Buy rating with a $212 target price The consensus target is $210.25, and the shares closed Monday trading at $206.40.

VF Corp. (NYSE: VFC): Cowen’s downgrade to Market Perform from Outperform included a price objective trim to $50 from $52. The consensus target is $53.85. The $43.14 close on Monday was down over 5% for the day.

Vipshop Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: VIPS): Citigroup raised its Sell rating to Neutral and boosted the $7.80 price target to $10.90. The consensus target is $11.53. The stock closed Monday at $10.79, up almost 8% on the day, perhaps due to the upgrade.

Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT): Goldman Sachs reiterated a Buy rating on the retail colossus and has a $155 target price. The consensus target is $149.75. The shares, which reside on the firm’s Conviction List of top stock ideas, closed at $134.57 on Monday.

Get Our Free Investment Newsletter

I have read, and agree to the Terms of Use

Five Jefferies value stock picks are well suited for what could be a very ugly rest of the year. They pay solid and dependable dividends and should hold their ground in an inflationary and recessionary period better than stocks that ripped during the summer rally.

Also, RBC Capital has lost faith in two top software stocks.

Monday’s early top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Applied Materials, Autodesk, BJ’s Wholesale Club, Bluebird Bio, Domino’s Pizza, eBay, Foot Locker, Kohl’s, Nasdaq, Salesforce, Snowflake, Southern, Teradyne, UDR and ZTO Express. Analyst calls seen later in the day were on Canadian National Railway, Cardinal Health, Coupa Software, DocuSign, Gritstone Bio, United Parcel Service and more.

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.